First 5gal Mead, Several Questions

[Moonpile]

I'm hoping to go pick up 1gal of Blueberry honey from the Bee Folks in Mt. Airy, MD today for a 5 gal batch of mead my friends and I will start tomorrow night.

We want it to be fairly dry (but not too dry) and it will eventually be primed and bottled to make it sparkling.

I've made 1 gal batches in the past and I was totally over pitching them by using a Wyeast pack (I think they were smaller then back in '97ish) so I never bothered with nutrients.

I'm thinking of using dry champagne yeast because we want good attenuation and a minimal flavor input from the yeast. With an estimated OG of 1.084, should I use two packs? Should I use nutrient?

Otherwise here's the intended process, and I'm open to critique here:

We have a 20 qt pot, so we're going to bring 3.75 gal of water up to about 120, just to make it easier to dissolve the honey. We're not going to boil, 'cause we want to maintain the flavors. Then add another 1/4 gal as we put it into a carboy and pitch the yeast when it cools.

If we should use nutrients, when should we add them?

Thanks!

Moon

 

[mgayer]

120 degrees should not bother any additions. I would add when your cooling. Just a hint but when you have got the must down a bit in temp I would use a jar, I use the honey jar, fill it about half full of must and shake it. Pour it back in and do a couple more times. This will help oxy the must.

Your yeast will need the nutrients. Traditional mead does not have much to help the yeast.

Adding two packs of yeast will bring the alch content up quickly and if this all your putting in you want the alch to go up quick to kill any baddies trying to grow. Remember you can always add a bit of honey when racking if it becomes too dry.

My recipe sounds very simular to this one and I have added 1lb of honey after the third racking and after a week no increase in the ferm process.

Good deal I never boil!!

 

[magno]

I heat the must up to 160*F to kill off any nasties.

I would add one package of yeast, and nutrient after aerating a lot.

- magno

 

[DraconianHand]

Add nutrients, honey doesn't contain enough yeast chow by itself.

I would suggest starting with just one packet of champagne yeast and if it stalls, then pitch again. If you dry it out too much, you can always add some more honey to it to sweeten it back up.

 

[Moonpile]

I read on http://www.meadmadecomplicated.org/ that the yeast nutrient does help ferm faster, but it will take longer to age out the flavors it creates. What flavors do you get from it? Has anyone else noticed this?

How much nutrient to use in a 5 gal batch?

 

[THELAW]

MY EXPERIENCE with trad meads you do not need to heat the honey to kill nastys
most store bought honey is heated before packaging and raw honey has a natural antibiotic in it. remember they found honey in king tut's tomb that was still good.

just my 2 cents

 

[Moonpile]

Well I just got the honey. I'm getting excited.

I'm starting to think about just going with no heat at all.

I haven't decided on the nutrient yet, though the responses here seem in favor.

I'm preparing myself for shaking a lot of must! I think I'll be able to pour the bulk of the honey into 2 gal of water and shake that in the carboy while I pour a half gallon at a time into the gallon container that the honey came in and shake that for a while.

How about acid blend? I tasted mead made with this same honey and the guy who made it was adding a tiny pinch of acid blend at serving and showing the difference between no blend and blend added. I liked it a bit better with the blend. Should I add that sometime before bottling, and if so, when?

 

[mgayer]

Careful on using acid blend in mead! I use acid blend in other wines but not Mead. Just remember you can't take it out once it is in. I personally prefer a sweeter mead without other additions but hey, it's all about your taste and the flavors you want.

I would wait until closer to your last racking and do a bit of sampling with and without the acid blend. If you like the flavor with a small bit then add more acording to the batch size.

Yeast needs some food, without the nutrient you will most likely get a stuck fermentation or it will take forever to finish. I usually make 5 gallon batches and use 5 tsp of nutrient. Of course I use extra yeast to get it rolling at the begining.

My Mead kicked in last night and is bubbling away again. I enjoy the Cranberry honey for flavor and a bit of buckwheat honey to add a bit more color depth. No blueberry honey in this area but tons of clover. I think yours will rock without any acid.

 

[Moonpile]

Wow, 1 tsp of nutrients per gallon of must. More than I would have thought.

How big of a risk is it to go with no pateurization on a mead?

I have 1 gal of blueberry flower honey sitting on my credenza in my office right now. My co-workers are somewhat amused, but they're used to me getting excited about my Thursday night brew sessions.

Cheers!

 

[mgayer]

There is a big discussion on this every where you look. To boil or not to boil! Did the bee keeper pasturize the blueberry honey? If the yeast is good and the temp is kept in that 72 to 80 range and there is nutrient for your yeast to chow on then it keeps the bad wild yeast at bay.

I personally get just enough water warm to help disolve the honey better. I like to use a large canning pot to warm the water and pour the honey in. Then I can add cool water and put some mix in the honey jar and then shake and pour back in the pot and repeat this several times until the shoulders and arms are tired. The nutrients are introduced here.

This does a great mixing and puts plenty of oxy in the must and while I am doing this it also gives the yeast starter time to get going as I use dry yeast. Then I just add the must to the carboy and toss the yeast. I usually have to wait to top off the carboy for about 48 hours so I won't have any foam in the air lock.

Keep in mind your must does not have any nutrients to sustain the yeast very well, especially Lalvin ICV-D47, which is what I use.

 

[Moonpile]

Just an update on this batch.

Summary of recipe:
1 gal blueberry honey
4 gal water
5 tsp Fermax yeast nutrient
2 packets Cotes du Rhone

5/17: Mixed about half, aerated with Mix-Stir and mixed the rest. Must OG of 1.096. We did the no-boil, but in order to dissolve crystalized honey out of its container we did have to heat some of the water to ~100F and pitched at ~75F.

6/19: Just racked to secondary today after a bit more than a month. SG is .998. Taste is like Pinot Grigio with some Granny Smith apple juice and a squirt of honey added in. There was a waft of sulpher when we removed the airlock, but no hint of that in the taste. Very promising.

While I know that mead will get better with time, and I intend to save some, I now actually have hopes of drinking some of this, beyond hydro samples, within 6 months from brewing it!

If you're even thinking of brewing a mead, do it! Way cool.

 

[mgayer]

Outstanding! Glad to hear you did't add the acid! My mead comes off drinkable but does change or mellow at about 3 month intervals. Glad to hear your progress!
:rockin:

 

[Moonpile]

Yeah, the logic of "add the acid later if you really think you need it" won me over. Like you said, you can't get it out.

I'm assuming the flavors will mellow out a bit, but as of right now, there's NO WAY I'd put acid blend in there if I were drinking this right now. It's fairly tart as is.

 

[mgayer]

I popped a cork on a bottle of the Apple wine last weekend and it hadn't changed flavor but the after taste had changed to a bit more spice. I used the D47 yeast. I plan on opening a bottle of the mead this weekend and it usually has about the same type of after taste change , I use D47 yeast on it also. It does develop a spicy after taste.

I believe I will make my next batch with the blueberry honey. No honey here in the midwest as the freeze snap that happened has hurt the hives. I found a place in New Jersey that sells for $35.00 a gallon plus shipping so I might go for a couple gallons!

 

[Moonpile]

There's a specialty honey purveyor in Mt. Airy, MD who always have a great selection, but their honey is typically $25 for a half gallon or $39 for a gallon (and $120 for 5 gal!). So far I've bought 1 gal of blueberry honey and 1/2 gal of killer bee honey (for a cyser) from them.

A local homebrew shop in Baldwin, MD also has honey but the selection is sporadic. The last time I was in there, a week ago, he had a good selection. A bit cheaper at $15.75 per half gallon and $35 per gallon.

On the one hand I'd really like to go for 5 gallons and make several batches, but on the other hand I don't want to be locked into the same kind of honey for so long!

 

[Lonek]

My bother-in-law's uncle has a small bee farm and sells the honey for $20 a gallon. I'm going to try it out in the next few weeks, if it's good I'm willing to get some for you guys $20 + shipping.

 

[mgayer]

My bother-in-law's uncle has a small bee farm and sells the honey for $20 a gallon. I'm going to try it out in the next few weeks, if it's good I'm willing to get some for you guys $20 + shipping.

Let me know! Even with shipping, about a dollar a pound, it would be cheaper than I can get here. With the cold snap we had earlier this year the honey is hard to come by locally! Even the fruit trees are not producing much.

 

[Moonpile]

My bother-in-law's uncle has a small bee farm and sells the honey for $20 a gallon. I'm going to try it out in the next few weeks, if it's good I'm willing to get some for you guys $20 + shipping.

Lonek, I PM'ed you with my email. I'm definitely interested.

 

[mgayer]

Popped the cork on the first bottle of mead last night. Bottled from 6/10 and it rocks! A bit drier than I like, fg 996, but wonderful and not harsh. Now if I can keep some back to age.